Gulf of Slides trail below Main Gully at 4050 feet elevation.

Traveled into the Gulf of Slides today to assess distribution and sensitivity of the wind slab problem. There was ample sunshine, few clouds, calm winds, and the temperature was in the mid teens. We were able to see that gullies had filled-in more with wind slabs and the upper start zones looked  wind scoured but still snow filled. At elevations below 3000 feet, the snow was getting sun affected, but this had refrozen with a very thin zipper-skin by the time we rode down at 1 pm. 

At 4050 feet of elevation on an east, northeast aspect we dug a pit and assessed stability. The snowpack in this location was 125 cm in depth. Overall the new snow was right-side-up resting on top of the January 13th storm crust. In column tests there were repeatable results of sudden collapse failures, 21 cm deep on a layer of graupel, however no propagation was observed (ECTN14, ECTN13, CT14). This graupel was noted yesterday morning (January 14th) in several east facing lower elevation locations and then 5.5 inches of new snow and wind were added to it throughout the day yesterday. 

Take-aways:

• A  fist hard wind slab formed from the new 5.5 inches of new snow and west, southwest winds yesterday (January 14th). 
• This new wind slab is stubborn to react and does not propagate within the snowpack.
• The identifiable crust from the January 13th storm was not reactive and the slab above seems bonded to this crust. 
• Gullies are more filled in and their avalanche paths are more connected within the terrain.